He is
the co-founder of Wired magazine, a best-selling author, and seems to
have his pulse on the heartbeat of technology for over 25 years. He
shares his philosophies on technology and how you can stay cutting edge
in this ever-evolving world.
I
have taken his interview on 30 Days of Genius with Chase Jarvis,
extracted the information, and used it to answer common questions by
readers just like you, who are looking to take their lives to the next
level, or at least a different level than the one they are on.
Please enjoy.
Do I Have To Adopt New Technology?
That
depends. Do you want to have more choices? Do you want to increase the
possibilities of this world and its inhabitants? Do you want to do
things that have never been done, with people you would have never met
otherwise, in a way you never thought possible?
Those are personal questions. For me? I say absolutely yes, you need to adopt new technology. You have to.
Does technology create problems? Absolutely.
But there is a catch.
The
way I look at it, today’s tech makes tomorrow’s problems. Sound a
little depressing? It is, except for the fact that new technology will
solve all of those problems. We
will be better on the other end of it, with a new set of problems, but
with new technology just around the corner to solve them.
The
scary, fascinating, wonderful, and amazing part of technology and it’s
ever changing nature is that the problems of “tomorrow” may be solved,
literally, tomorrow. We aren’t talking months and years like the past,
we are talking about days and hours. Without the “bad” you never would
get to the “good.”
A little scary? Sure, sometimes.
But
the only way to maximize the potential of technology is to keep
creating, keep innovating, changing, failing, adjusting, practicing, and
finally, succeeding. It is all about deliberate practice. You are
legitimately trying to fail in order to figure out weaknesses and problems. It is “failing forward,” as Derek Sivers puts it.
What Do You View As The Main Benefit To Technology?
New technologies allow for genius to shine.
Think about it.
Lives
change because of new technology, right? We can all agree on that. But
the new technology allows for things to be possible that weren’t
possible before that new technology. That may sound too obvious, so
think of it in terms of music:
What if Mozart were 100 years older?
What if the Beatles formed in the 1990’s?
What if Metallica started in the 1940s?
They would have been too soon, or too late, and the world would have missed out on their genius.
No Mozart? No Beatles? No Metallica?
Where would music be today?
If there was no YouTube, how many stars would we be missing today? The Beebs? Nope. No
YouTube!
It
has never been easier to get your work out there. It doesn’t matter
what your area of expertise is, you can find people all over the world
to share it with. 50 years ago? You would just be sitting in your house,
being an expert all by yourself.
How
many companies started in a garage in the 70s and 80s? Now the garage
is the entire world (at least those connected to the internet).
That is a wonderful thing.
What Is The Future Of Tech, and How Can I Utilize It?
Our
brains are going to be more valuable than ever. Critical thinking.
Critical questioning. Creativity. Those three things will be more
important than ever because the jobs that require efficiency: cashiers,
assembly line workers, even drivers (in the near future), will be done
by robots. Humans will be doing jobs that are wasteful and inefficient,
like thinking and creating. The “new work” will not be measured in
productivity. We will be left with jobs and tasks that are more opened
ended.
To put it plainly, answers will be worth nothing, but questions will be worth everything.
Google
can practically answer any question you have today. That will become
more and more true as time passes and the “question answering”
technology advances. But the questions themselves? Digging deeper?
That’s where the money will be.
Collaboration
is going to be the next big thing for the creative community. We love
the idea of the lone creative genius, but that is rarely the reality.
Adding other ways to meet and collaborate, not just face to face, is
going to be enormous moving forward.
Tech
is additive. Increasing choices and possibilities. It increasingly
allows people to work on something together that they could never do
before.
How do you utilize it?
Experience it. Try it out. Play with it. Figure it out, then put yourself in it.
You
will never be able to successfully adopt new technology unless you play
with it and learn it for yourself. You can pay someone to do it, but it
will never capture the essence of you without your direct knowledge and
application.
The big thing now? VR. Play with some goggles, check out some 360 cameras. How can you use them?
The
earlier you adopt them the less crowded the market space is. That new
technology could be the one that takes your career to the next level.
But you have to try.
Be
quick to try, quick to drop, and slow to adopt. Find the things that
work for you. Find the ways that work for you. Try everything, then
adopt. You need to be very selective in what you ultimately choose.
Quotes
“We tend to over-estimate the effects of technology in the short term and underestimate the effects in the long term.”
“Disruptions
always come from the outside. If you want to be successful and stay
successful, you need to keep an eye out on what is going on around you,
and look for the inroads.”
Kevin Kelly Links
Chase Jarvis Links
Joey Links
